Use of Social Media by Unions | Canada & USA

Unions have featured quite prominently in news media lately, mostly through the Occupy Wall Street movement (if it can be called that.) With some pundits and media outlets claiming the power and influence of the union has waned in recent years. We can’t comment on whether this is true or not, but a lot of the research we do often features unions. So we decided here to provide some of our aggregate data on which unions are most active in the United States and Canada.

Social Media Use by Unions in the United States
Unions in the US have, for the most part, adopted social media into their communications. Certainly, America leads the way with union’s usage of social media. This is not surprising. There are many more unions and affiliate organizations in the US than Canada and in this instance we looked only at the most active in social media channels. In the U.S. unions use social media for a) broad communications and b) to actually organize rallies and events. We compared usage between 2010 and 2011 to see if there was growing adoption of social media. There is, with some more than others. The AFL-CIO are the most active in the U.S., perhaps not surprisingly so given their broader reach. Behind them is the IBEW for electrical workers.

Social Media Use by Unions in Canada
Unions in Canada have been slower to adopt and use social media. More so than we originally thought. Also, Canadian unions tend to use social media for communications and far less to organize events like their US counterparts. Canadian unions are more “broadcast” as well; meaning they are less likely to engage in dialogue with members and the public. In Canada, the IBEW is the most active and engaged in social media, perhaps as they have chosen to follow in the footsteps of their American counterparts.

Quick Summary
American unions are far more “discussion oriented” than Canadian unions. Unions in the US accept and engage with supporters and non-supporters and are more open in their dialogue. Canadian unions are less engaging with their audiences for the most part. Unions saw their most increased use of engagement in 2011. Prior to 2010, we saw very little usage. Mostly it was the IBEW and their use of YouTube for videos and rallying support.

We forecast increased use of social media by unions in the coming years and across more channels. Today, they are mostly using Twitter, YouTube, Blip.tv, Facebook and blogs as their platforms of choice. Production values of content have improved dramatically and they are integrating social media with traditional channels.

Methodology
To assess use, we first collected data from across all unions in the US and Canada. From here we parsed down the data and analysed which unions a) used the most channels, b) what was their influence and authority (our own algorithms and 3rd party tools such as Klout for verification), c) frequency of communications and d) participation with audience. These primary points were compared between 2010 and 2011. There was statistical variation allowance for populations and unions size to enable more accurate comparions. Based on the above criteria, we assigned a “rank” from 1 to 15 with a 15 being very engaged and 1 being hardly engaged at all (perhaps just 1 or social media channels with little active use.) The data provided herein is the aggregate of that collected for client research projects and does not provide confidential information given to clients.